Monthly Archives: June 2013

Zan Schans is a quaint little traditional Dutch village less than half an hour away from Amsterdam. It is characterised by windmills and little stores selling trinkets, clogs, chocolates, cheese and other little goodies. There is also the interesting Zan Schans Museum. We had a relaxing half a day out in Zan Schans. Below are a few pictures:

A good way to capture the unique sights around Amsterdam is to take a boat cruise along the many canals. I expected to see many bridges, boats and bikes – but what I found most interesting were the boat-houses along the two sides in the river. People actually lived there, and seemed to be having cozy house plants, family dinners or get-togethers and audio-equipment in them! Here are a few photos from the boat cruise:

In the centre of Amsterdam next to the roundabout amidst a hive of activity, more beautiful gardens, pancake houses and a river, is an imposing building – the Heineken brewery. Having passed by the centre of town a few times and seen this inviting building, our curiosity got the better of us and we decided we had to have the Heineken experience.

We were given a tour around the brewery and shown how beer is made from the 4 main ingredients – water, barley, hops and yeast.

There was a section relating the history of how Heineken started with an entrepreneurial beginning and how very scientific techniques were applied to improve the quality of the beer, with many exhibits.

Horses have been very much a part of the story, being used for their strength to transport the beer – we saw real live horses in the building.

There was also a section called “Brew you ride. Be the beer.” This was a 4D experience where we were given the experience of “being the beer”. This included a little water being sprayed on us and the experience of being shaken in the room just like beer when it’s brewed!

The Van Gogh Museum celebrates its 40th year in 2013. We understood that it just re-opened it’s doors to the public on 1 May 2013 so it was perfectly timed for our visit. More can be found here about Van Gogh’s life and works.

I was reminded of a lovely video a friend of mine sent below with the famous song Starry, Starry Night, the tribute to Van Gogh. The video contains some of his well known works of art. The link is below, following the words (called VanGoghSong1). Just open it, click on slide show and enjoy.

You probably know the song “Starry Starry Night” by Don McLean, written by him in 1971 as a tribute to Vincent van Gogh.The song describes various Van Gogh paintings. In 1972, McClean’s record was No.1 in the U.K.

For several years, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam played the song daily.

In the museum’s security safe is a copy of the sheet music, a set of Van Gogh’s paint brushes,

the hat he wore while painting Starry Night and various other items.

It is said that ‘Starry Night’ was painted while he was in an asylum.

He sold only one painting during his lifetime, as his genius was not recognized.

That may be what caused him to fall into an abyss of depression which led to his suicide…….

tragic for one so gifted to have felt so non-understood.

Open the attached and enjoy the video. Make sure you have the volume turned up!

( if you want to print off the pictures, you’ll have a set of Van Gogh’s 32 best-known paintings.)

Artis Zoo was named as one of the top ten attractions in Amsterdam, so we spent a few hours there. It was a nice day out – very pleasant. We had a good impression of the zoo. The place was well maintained and all the animals healthy looking. There were many interesting animals, a place for kids with tame farm animals that they could get close to and touch and another area, a “Forest House” with freely roaming animals. Of course, the landscaped gardens were beautiful with pretty flowers including tulips. Below are a few photos:

Before visiting Keukenhof in early May this year, I had thought to myself – “Flowers – they’ll be pretty, but well, they’re just flowers…”. While I walked around in Keukenhof however, the sights were mesmerizingly beautiful everywhere I turned. I could not help but keep thinking that this was what I could imagine heaven to look like. We were blessed with pleasant weather that day too – temperature in the low twenties and lots of sunshine. There was the pleasant light scent of flowers to top it off.

There were seven million bulbs of tulips there this year in Keukenhof, we were told. Many were on beautifully landscaped gardens; there were also fields of tulips that we could get a view of from above, standing on a windmill – seas of red, yellow, orange, white… rows of flowers one after another into the distance. Do enjoy just a few photos below.